Wanting to be right

So before I start on today's blogpost, I just want to talk about my previous one slightly. It's that after discussion with my friends, I've come to the conclusion that my perfect humanity is impossible simply because of the fact that we are human. It is human to seek dominion over others viewed to be lesser. It's probably because of the desire to pass on our genes. We believe our genes are the best and hence will seek to make sure that people with "lesser" genes are less able to do so, as do lions and chimpanzees and a whole host of other lifeforms that have a social structure, even without, as can be seen in polar bears. While a hierarchy of power will always exist as it is inevitable, humans with the most power will often seek to dominate less powerful individuals. And I say a hierarchy of power is inevitable because it's the wisest to let people who are most capable to lead do so but it invariably gives them power as well, creating an imbalance in power and hence a hierarchy. So unless humanity is able to erase this will to dominate from themselves, thereby becoming inhumane, my perfect humanity scenario cannot exist and because they are no longer human, they aren't the perfect humanity but the perfect inhumanity. Therefore a perfect humanity is impossible.

Enough with all that humanity nonsense and back to today's topic which is this desire to be correct. Now there's nothing really wrong with wanting to be correct, in fact I think it's a fantastic thing to want to be correct. It can drive this passion of knowledge, to be as correct as one can possibly be. The issue lies in defiance in the face of overwhelming evidence. To help illustrate, imagine person A saying 2+2=5. Person B proves to person A that 2+2=4.  Now there's 4 possible endings, of which I think I could have experienced. 1, person A admits his mistake and accepts the new information. 2, person A denies this evidence and refuses to listen, cue annoying "lahlahlahlahlah" noises. 3, person A rejects this information simply because person A wants to win, person B is someone close to person A and person A feels person B should let person A win. 4, person A tells person B he's wrong in unrelated topic or person A did unrelated topic correctly.

Now I'm not judging you, I don't know your life story. You may or may not have done scenario 2-4. I probably am guilty of 2 and 4 at one point or another in my life. Here's my opinion though, if you've been proven wrong, just admit it and save yourself a graceful defeat that still reserves you some measure of dignity. Sure person B may gloat over it and what not but know at least that you've gracefully accepted your shortcomings. I've personally experienced 3 and 4 and I've got to say that 3 is nasty to deal with and 4 really made me want to shoot myself in the head. I personally can't bring myself to accept what people tell me without going to the primary source or have it be backed by evidence that proves the hypothesis true. Which was why I found 3 to be hard to deal with as I couldn't allow the other person to "win" even though she was wrong while she felt that I had to give way.

So it seems I've run out of things to say and our time together is at an end. As I've said, next time you're wrong, perhaps it should be wiser to just accept your mistakes and let yourself have a dignified retreat than a defiant fight that would ultimately prove to be in vain.

My Ideal Humanity

So recently I had a discussion with my friends from secondary school about some pretty philosophical shit at a shopping centre up on the roof. Sitting in the night sky was Jupiter and Venus, and indeed it was incredibly sad that no one else noticed them or was watching them. Over the 2 weeks that we were up there, they were moving further and further apart and it was a little saddening to see that.

So we had a discussion on the human brain and various aspects of humanity. This reminded me of a long standing thought I had on humanity. So here's my idea of the perfect mankind and whether I think it's possible and why or why not. Take this with a pinch of salt though, it's my idea of the ideal humanity but it might not be yours and that's alright, you are entitled to what your own thoughts might be.

So here's my idea of the perfect humanity, part of it you might recognise from my previous blog. Imagine that humanity has transcended the idea of "self" and there is no more conflict any where in the world. That humanity has decided as a whole to come together and solve all of humanity's problems, world hunger, poverty, war, crime, terrorism. Everybody adopts this new religion of exploration while not dropping their previous one, be it Atheism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, what have you. In their own way they tie their new religion of exploration to their own.

Now what do I mean by exploration? Well, anything really. It's only defined by the individual. For some it could mean becoming a marine scientist and exploring the oceans. To others, space is the next frontier. To the less otherworldly inclined people, it could just mean exploring their own limits, what they're capable of. Anything and everything is possible to be explored.

But that's not all, it's not just humanity's problems that we'd solve, we'd solve all of Earth's problems as well, reverse deforestation, cleanse the oceans, fix the food chains. Return Earth to the best state it could go back to before humans fucked it all up.

Aside from that, a world under one flag. The abolishment of countries, the idea of race and class. All humans on equal footing. When asked by an extra terrestrial our homeland, we'd reply with Earth, when asked our race, we'd reply human, not I'm a Chinese from China. A borderless Earth, where we would only have one flag that we rally with, our identity to any extra terrestrial to visit Earth. Where we'd have a combined effort to go beyond what is capable alone. Granted there'll be lack of competition but as long as there's the drive to challenge humanity itself, there's no place we can't reach. Well of course there has to be a way of identifying land masses, so it's likely to be more possible that the land is separated into provinces and we could tell other humans we hail from so and so province but when we introduce ourselves to aliens, we'd use Earth as our home.

Simply put, it's just communism as it was meant to be, as a friend of mine said. It probably is too, but in my opinion, it's not possible at the moment simply because of human nature. Not everyone would share this ideology and should one such person have a great enough ambition, he would surely seek domination over others. It's nothing short of expected, it's why we had kings and emperors in the past. It's something we can see in our cousins the Great Apes. Every chimpanzee troop has an alpha male who absolutely dominates over every other male and it is within their nature to seek to usurp the alpha and become the top dog. Such an instinct is in humans as well and it would take a great deal of enlightenment to overcome it. But it's not impossible, I believe a day will come when humans will unite in such a way to reach greater heights than we've ever achieved.

Again, this is another unlikely task as humanity's greed is far too great, as highlighted by the shining, I mean smoggy, example of China, who has forsaken its environment for rapid economic growth. It is highly unlikely that China would willingly cease it pollution and seek to reverse the damage it has wrought upon its own lands.

And I highly doubt it's possible for humans to be able to abandon their flag for a new one representing all humanity. Again like the chimpanzees, humans are highly territorial. It would be highly unlikely that humans would willingly give up their land to all of humanity. But again, I think it's not an impossible achievement.

So that's my thoughts on what the ideal humanity would be like, it's unlikely to happen in the span of a century, maybe even two. But I have a dream, as did Martin Luther King Jr., that this would eventually happen and allow humans to reach greater heights than ever before. As said by a scientist on the New Horizons project,

"We are capable of continuing an adventure that humanity began a hundred thousand years ago as our ancestors walked out of Africa, and we are continuing that exploration and this country is at the forefront of it."

Well I'd look forward to the day where it's humanity, and not just America that's at the forefront of it.

On Amos and his Supporters

Writing this in class with 17 minutes left on the clock because YOLO. Anyway, so Amos Yee recently got out of jail and he's been off shooting his mouth again. Many people were also like "Gee, he looks so terrified and traumatised coming out of jail." To that all I have to say is, there is nothing wrong with a kid learning his place in the world. So what's my opinion of Amos? Well having read his blog post regarding his school life and also from his Facebook status updates, and also having ran into him in school(yes we were in the same secondary school) and finding out about his antics and also a few of his YouTube videos, he gives me the impression of this incredibly stuck up little shit with a massive superiority complex. He believes that he is massively intelligent, infallible, unmatched by his peers and even his elders/mentors/teachers. He thinks he is of great caliber, up there with the likes of Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan. He thinks that he's such a great writer despite his misused vocabulary and imperfect grammar.

His supporters? I shall liken it it to North Korea and any of their 3 Supremes. They worship him and see no fault. Okay, I'm sure Amos has his good points, be it you like his indomitable spirit or his eloquence (I will not deny he is a well spoken person, when compared to most Singaporeans), these are things that you can admire him about. But shit, the majority of his fans you see treats him like fucking Jesus, can't talk shit about him or take his name in vain because he is all powerful and benevolent and what not and oh so infallible. Just take a gander through his comment sections, look at the replies people make to comments asking him to be more humble or even talking shit about him. They fucking defend him with all they have.

To be honest, I think that's real distasteful. There's nothing wrong about admiring someone but it becomes a problem when people are blind to the flaws of their idols. Sure you can agree with Amos' points, but do you agree with his cocky superiority complex that he has as well? What kind of a person does that make you if you are okay with that? A god damn sheep, it makes you. I have much respect for Richard Dawkins and his work in the field of Evolution but I have a problem with his hardline Atheist attitude. I'm Atheist as well but I recognise that religion does have its benefits. It was meant to be a way of living life that has become obsolete in certain areas and also can be misinterpreted and misused to create conflict and violence. All Richard Dawkins sees is the latter, which is not entirely reflective of religion. So here's my parting line, it is alright to follow an idea or an idol, but don't be a blind follower and see the flaws of it as well.

Perfectionism

It's been almost 3 weeks since I last blogged so hello, welcome back me. Anyway, I just kinda felt like talking about my perfectionism. Well I wouldn't really call it perfectionism but more of pedantry, nitpicking of really minor details, which I guess is in an effort to make things perfect? So calling it perfectionism is probably a better choice.

I'm a really critical person, if I see something wrong, I'll tell you about it whether you like it or not.  I am known to be quite an asshole by many people who know me because of this reason. I think I've been trying to tone it down for the past couple years but whenever I see something that's not right that easily should have been, I just can't hold it in you know. Kinda seems like I'm out of topic here but just listen and maybe you might understand. You see, my perfectionism is overflowing. That's the only way I know how to describe it. In the sense that I not only nitpick my own work, I nitpick the work of others, sometimes I act on it and try to tell them what's wrong but most of the time I don't. (And I only nitpick stuff I know I'm good at, if I don't know something I won't try and correct you about that.) That's not a really nice thing to do and usually people don't see why I'm so anal about it but the way I see it, if you can do it right, you should do it right. If it's not right, you should make it so. Thing is, not everyone thinks so.

There's this really pervasive view in society that good enough is good enough. Or nonchalance I guess. 

"Oh, I did it, I can't really be bothered if it's done well or not, I did it and that's good enough." 

Well here's what, it's not fucking good enough. There's an example I could use, there's a medical procedure where they stick a needle into your vein that leads straight to your heart that is used for various medical procedures. But problem with that is if that needle is infected, the infection goes right to your heart and spreads quick as fuck through your whole body and yea, for a person that already needs a needle in their veins so that some medicines can be administered faster, that's not really desirable. When this happens it's called a central line infection. Some hospitals go apeshit and start reviewing policies, making new ones and doing everything they can to prevent it from happening again. Now, isn't that good? But then there are hospitals that are just "Eh, shit happens." And don't do shit about it. In reality, such infections can be easily, very very easily prevented with proper protocols and what not. (Go check out the video where Vox talks about this.) Now, imagine if nearly everyone is like that and you'll see what I see.

Allow me to use an example from school. Before the term break, there was an assignment to be submitted and my classmate hadn't done it yet so he was doing it in class. And there where a boatload of errors and fallacies. Didn't use common sense to think about what is required and just writing everything down because well, it's gotta be right eh(no it's not)? Not answering the question and by the gods, English that would kill a man. If a doctor wrote instructions for nurses using his English, people will die. And given that we are studying to be Engineers, ENGINEERS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, it is imperative that we have good English. We are meant to better the lives of people by coming up with solutions, inventions that can save time, money and lives. If you can't use English for shit to properly communicate your idea and it gets interpreted wrongly, people can die. Fucking die, you hear me? And it's just plain easier to read and understand if it is correct instead of broken to shit English, undefined parameters and vague properties. If I ask you how expensive something is and you answer, "Price," it doesn't answer a fucking thing, what the fuck is that supposed to mean? And then, I shit you not, he made this comment,

"Dude, it's just English, who cares?"

What the serious fuck. You know who cares? The person who is lying in a hospital because you couldn't be bothered to be precise and detailed. The person's family who lost a father or a mother, or a brother or sister, a son or daughter because YOU can't fucking be bothered to write in understandable and good English, something was executed wrongly and he/she FUCKING DIED. And who else cares? YOUR FUCKING BOSS BECAUSE HE IS GETTING SUED FOR YOUR NONCHALANCE TO DETAIL AND PRECISION. BECAUSE YOU CAN'T FUCKING BE BOTHERED TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE CORRECT.

This same person was in my group project, and boy he fucked up big time. Out of the 4 people, his work was the worst. Terrible English, fucking wrong protocols and he had the fucking gall to say

"Dude, I only spent one hour doing it in class."

*Insert slow clapping.* WHAT. THE. FUCK. Every fucking night he's playing CS:GO, didn't even fucking start his work and he told us he fell asleep doing it. And he fucking owned himself, exactly because he only spent one hour doing his work, it's fucking SHIT. Seriously, why the fuck do I even have to tell him that. He didn't even fucking check his work. And soon after he was nitpicking on the fact that people put a full stop in the rating section of the table.

Namely this:

Seriously, it's a fucking full stop. At least their work is correct.

His work:

YES, PUTTING ON GLOVES CAN STOP A FIRE FROM STARTING.

When I told him his work is shit, he told me "Lose grades lor, never mind what." Yea, lose grades, of course he would, but this is a group work and so would the other group members and I. After that, his work isn't even correct and he wants to nitpick other people's work because it was an eyesore. Fuck me, reading his work is like reading the Elder Scrolls, it's fucking making me lose my eyesight. And then he wanted to talk shit about how it wasn't "Minor Moderate Major" and people put "Low Moderate and Severe" instead(I was supposed to make the final edits to make it so that it was MMM instead of LMS). I honestly do not see how that is not the same meaning and people can mistake the magnitudes. Because high doesn't mean of a great magnitude, it means minor magnitude. Fucking dumbest shit I've ever been exposed to. I didn't have the time to make changes to things that aren't necessarily wrong. He even fucking tried to rebut me with my own point that it will cause us to lose grades as well but seriously, what we wrote was still correct at least. His isn't even fucking remotely close.

I have digressed really far into a rant, point is, people don't put in any effort into their work at all and just don't bother. They lack the drive to want to make their work the best and I see this in almost everyone. And it really pisses me off, the repercussions of such an attitude is often not felt just by the person with such an attitude(not that he would care anyway) alone, but by those around him as well. Why should others have to suffer because one guy can't give a fucking shit.